Friday 7/10-2011
Hello everybody!
NB! This is (still) a fictional blog. I have not been to Kenya, and everything I write are based on facts I have read. The pictures are also not mine, but borrowed from the internet. (source under every picture) I also have a list of sources I have used at the bottom of this entry
Right now I
am chilling in my flat after my first day here in Kenya and I love Nairobi
already. Nairobi is the largest city in Kenya with approximately 3 million
people. Nairobi has no coastline; it is located in the middle of the country.
This first day of my trip I have spent beeing a tipical tourist. I have been
driven (notice; not walking) around in Nairobi and looked at the city. You may wonder
why I did not walk and there is a simple answer to that question. Crime.
Nairobi is actually nicknamed Nairobbery and for good reason. It is clearified
as one of the most dangerous cities in the world and around one third of the
population in Nairobi has experienced crime in one way or another. Therefore, I took no chances.
I had a very nice and kind taxidriver, Udo, who gladly drove me around and
showed me the city. He spoke this very cool type of English (English is
actually one of the official languages here) and I had to try really hard not to
laugh at times. But he was very nice and we talked a lot while I took idiotical
(and some very beautiful) photos. For lunch I ate Kenyan food at a little, cute
restaurant Udo recommended. I ate Kenya’s national dish which is called Ugali
and looks somewhat like this:
Ugali is some sort of a porrigde made of cornmeal, hot water and cold
water. (The white thing on the picture above). I got it served with some
vegetables and meat. Does not seem very complicated right? Well the taste was
not very complicated either. It did not taste bad just, I don`t know, I think I will just say that it did not taste very much.
After I had eaten, I had a very strong experience. You see, I went to
visit Kibera. (I had somebody with me now as well). Kibera is the largest
slum-area in Kenya, the second largest in Africa and it is third on the list of
biggest slums in the world. It is located 5 km from the Nairobi city centre.
I, who live in Norway, am used to
having everything I need and I take it for granted. Enough food, clean water,
access to a doctor, love and care from the people around me. The population in
Kibera had restricted access to water and food and no access to healthcare.
Every day is a struggle just to get enough food for so many people. One thing
they did not lack however, was love for eachother. In lack of all those other
things, they stuck together, loved eachother and it was fascinating to watch.
It shows that people can love even though they are living under such bad
conditions. I would recommend everyone who visit Kenya to go to Kibera, not
because it is funny, but because it is a strong experience and it might open your eyes for how good of a life you are actually living.
Kibera was a huge contrast from the city of Nairobi. There were huge
differences in the way people lived their lives. When Udo had driven me around
in Nairobi, we had looked at neighboorhoods with beautiful houses and gardens.
Everything is not always like it seems. To me, it seemed like they wanted to
show only the clean, wealthy part of the society and tried to kind of hide away
the poor part of the population. I understand that they want to give the nicest
impression possible, but when about 25% of the population in Nairobi live in
Kibera, you can`t just exclude them. All people all worth the same.
I only took two pictures while I was in Kibera. I did not want to show off
my camera in front of the people. I felt that it could have been kind of
disrespectful.
http://archive.icommons.org/_overblog/img/1215639423_kibera.jpg
http://www.affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/2_200222_20Ke_20Kibera_20Soweto_20East_20kids_20playing_20050625_small.jpg
The picture under is a picture from the city centre
of Nairobi. Quite a contrast from Kibera don’t you think?
.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nairobi
about crime
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